©2012 by Ursula Gorman
Published by TreasureLine Publishing
All rights reserved
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The following is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, to factual events or to businesses is coincidental and unintentional. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
Acknowledgments
This has been quite an experience to write…the story line changed more times than I care to count. That makes me even more grateful to those that I’ve bounced ideas off of and have endured the endless chatter and plot changes right along with me! First, to my sister Leatha West; she has been a lifesaver. Her help with editing and plot consistency has helped make ‘The Best of Us’, the best it can be! Thanks to Pat Garrison, who was my first Beta reader and my most often utilized sounding board! Her excitement in hearing how the story progressed helped keep me on track! I have enjoyed her feedback immensely! Thanks to Jessy Sharif, another Beta reader whose input helped tweak the final product.
Thank you to fellow author Darlene Shortridge, author of Until Forever. Your encouragement, advice, and especially your friendship, is valued and appreciated!
Special thanks to my family, who always encourage me. My husband Tim has always believed in me. My daughter Beth is my biggest fan and her enthusiasm is contagious! My son Shane, who isn’t old enough to read my stories just yet, is always reminding me that imagination is a valuable asset and should be honed and explored! My parents, Keith and Ruth Hill, and my brother and sister-in-law, Alan and Suzanne Hill, for always encouraging me! I love you all!
Most importantly, thanks to God for giving me an outlet for all the ideas bouncing around in my head! By His grace…
Prologue
Senior Year…
She wasn’t expecting the attack that came from her blind spot so when the impact came she was completely unprepared. As the almost two hundred pound weight landed on top of her, all the air was knocked out of her body. Her head hit the ground with a solid thump.
She could hear voices but she couldn’t make out what they were saying, they sounded like they were in an empty room, far away. She opened her eyes to look at the train that had hit her. She would have said something but she still hadn’t gotten her wind back yet.
He was looking down at her grinning like an idiot. Slowly the smile faded and was replaced by a look of concern as he realized he had hit her pretty hard.
“DOG PILE!!!!” Was what she heard as the ringing in her ears started to subside.
“If I’m gonna die, I would rather be taken by surprise.” She thought.
He moved so that his body was running the same length of hers. He had a knee on each side of her legs and his elbows were on either side of her shoulders, creating a bridge of sorts over her.
“Hold on.” He said as a blur of bodies came running and jumping on top of them. He had leveraged himself up off of her to be able to take some of the weight of the added bodies piling on top of them.
She had closed her eyes when she heard the yell indicating that things were about to get worse. But he had managed to keep most of the weight off of her. She cautiously opened her eyes and was looking up at her best friends face. She was on the very top of the pile, smiling.
“Hey Carly, what’cha doing down there?” Jenna asked, then winked at Carly.
“Get off guys; I think I hit Carly too hard.” Daniel said, albeit with a strained voice, after all, he was supporting three people on his back.
Everyone sobered and got off Daniel. There was a look of concern on everyone’s face. Carly laid there on a gorgeous spring day, with the most beautiful blue sky above her, when suddenly all she could see was four almost identical faces looking down at her.
“Carly, are you alright?” Harm asked
“Come on Carly, talk to us.” Carter said squatting beside her.
Carly looked at Daniel, “You’re an idiot.” Carly said in the same tone you would tell someone what the time was.
“Oh good, see, she’s not hurt.” Daniel said, reaching down and helping her up.
“That hurt, you Neanderthal!” Carly said with venom as she hit Daniel in the chest, which was a wasted effort for all the reaction he showed.
“Hey, we were playing football and you were staring off into space. It’s your own fault!” Daniel said in his own defense.
“Yeah? First off, we are playing flag football which means no tackling and second, WE ARE ON THE SAME TEAM!!!” Carly finished in a yell, and then winced at the pain in her head.
All three of the guys busted out laughing and Jenna couldn’t help but join in. Carly glared at the four siblings and if her head hadn’t been hurting so much she probably would have joined in too. Instead she turned and walked back to the cooler to get some ice for her head.
“Come on Carly, it was all in good fun!” Daniel said to her retreating back.
Jenna followed Carly to the ice chest, “You okay?” Jenna was a little worried; Carly wasn’t one to hold a grudge, especially against Daniel.
“I’m fine, just knocked the back of my head a bit.” Carly sat in one of the lawn chairs they had brought to the park with them.
“You know that if you don’t pay attention, one of the boys will do something…” Jenna let the comment trail off. They had both been recipients of the boy’s pranks from time to time and they constantly had to be on their toes around them.
“Yeah, I know. But if I’m not mistaken, the dog pile call was yelled by a female Wayne sibling…unless one of your brothers is still going through puberty, I’m guessing it was you.”
Jenna tried for an innocent look but couldn’t pull it off. Instead she shrugged and gave Carly a sly smile, “I was just trying to help.”
Carly rolled her eyes, “Give it up.” Carly had been in love with Daniel since just about forever. Jenna had known about Carly’s feelings since day one but only occasionally teased Carly about it; apparently this was one of those days.
“Look, he was lying there, you were lying there…” Again, Jenna let the comment hang.
“So you think that dog piling us would somehow, what, make Daniel realize how much he secretly loves me and we would hook up? Get a grip Jenna.”
“Of course not, but it couldn’t hurt.”
“You weren’t the one on the bottom.” Carly said without heat.
“Come on Daniel…” Jenna begged her brother. “She needs you!”
Daniel knew he couldn’t win, he had never been able to refuse his baby sister, but this time she was asking too much. “I am not, and I repeat, am not taking anyone to a prom…I did that already and didn’t enjoy it then. What on this earth makes you think I would want to torture myself like that again?”
“Daniel,” Jenna started but Daniel talked right over her.
�
�I’m not doing it! Come on Jenna, get real. I have two left feet and, I. Don’t. Dance.” He said the last three words as if they were each there own sentence.
“She is going to miss her own senior prom...”
“Why me? What about Harm?” Harmon was the oldest of the four siblings and was still single as all the Wayne children were.
“He’s too old for her Daniel! Anyway, he’s doing his recertification for jumping and he can’t miss it.” Harm was a smoke jumper in Montana but had been on extended leave since he busted his knee on his last jump. They were all worried that he wouldn’t be able to jump again. For Harm that was like taking his oxygen away, he needed jumping, it was in his blood. No one was saying anything out loud, but they were all praying Harm’s knee would heal and he’d be able to continue doing the job he was born to do, jumping into forest fires!
Daniel knew not to try to argue about getting Harm to help, if he were going for recertification, nothing would stand in his way. Not even his baby sister.
“…don’t you agree?” Daniel realized his thoughts had wandered when he didn’t know what Jenna had just said. He was trying to figure out how to answer her question. He knew he could get himself into trouble if he answered it wrong. Jenna also wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if she knew he hadn’t been paying attention.
“Jenna…” Daniel felt that was safe, just let it hang.
“Daniel, I won’t go without her and then neither of us will be at our own senior prom.” After a brief pause she added, “And it’ll be your fault!”
“You’re kidding, right? You know that’s unfair. Why does it have to be me? Carter is closer to your ages, why don’t you ask him?” Carter was the youngest brother and just over a year older then Jenna and Carly.
“Because he’s taking Veronica, his girlfriend of almost two years…remember her? Come on Daniel, you know she will regret not going and you are the only one that can get her to go. She’s always had a thing for you and you know it. It’s one night out of your life…That jerk Ron cheated on her and he’s bringing her to the prom…Can you believe that? She doesn’t even go to our school but he’s going to bring her, Carly will be humiliated if she’s there without a date.”
“Jenna…why do you do this to me? I’m leaving for basic training next week. I need to get things together and tie up loose ends.” It was a futile attempt, but Daniel wasn’t ready to succumb to Jenna’s pleas just yet.
“It’s one night Daniel, just one night and you can save her senior prom.”
Daniel bowed his head and silently berated himself. “You know that I want to keep a low profile until I leave…I don’t want to have to deal with Glynna.” Glynna had been his girlfriend on and off for the last year. She was hearing wedding bells and the pitter patter of little feet. Daniel had wanted to take some time between school and joining the army since he planned to make a career out of the military, marriage and babies were not in his immediate future. They had broken up in a nasty scene just a couple of weeks earlier and she had been calling the house multiple times a day until he had just quit answering the phone.
“She’ll never know about it…or at least not until it’s over.” Jenna said in a pleading tone.
Daniel took a deep breath, “Fine…”
He couldn’t finish for Jenna’s whoops of joy, Daniel couldn’t help but smile. Everyone had a soft spot for Jenna and she usually got her way, not only was she the only girl and the youngest of the four kids, but she had almost died as a baby due to a respiratory infection she developed right after she was born. She had been a tiny and very sick baby and wasn’t able to come home until she was six weeks old. Even then she had to have breathing treatments, several rounds of antibiotics and weekly visits to the doctor’s office so they could keep a close eye on her. Everyone was protective of her; anyone that had ever met her brothers knew that instantly.
“Daniel? Seriously?” Carly was shocked. She couldn’t imagine the six foot two, one hundred eighty pound man dancing with her at prom. She started to giggle and couldn’t seem to stop; the image was just too comical.
“Listen, he made me promise not to tell anyone.” At the hurt look on Carly’s face Jenna rushed on, “He doesn’t want Glynna showing up and causing a scene.”
“I don’t know,” Carly said sobering up. “Daniel isn’t too thrilled about this, is he?”
“Come on, you know my brothers. They all act like they are being put out if they have to do anything. Anyway, you get to go to prom on the arm of the guy you’ve had the hots for since as long as I can remember. You will have an awesome memory of your senior prom and a really great picture to look at while he’s away in the army…”
Carly had been dreading the day Daniel would leave but she knew he was going and nothing would stop that. She decided at that moment that it didn’t matter why Daniel was going to prom with her, she would go and have a great time.
“Do you think he’ll kiss me goodnight?” Carly felt the heat of her embarrassment burning her ears and cheeks.
“Ewww…that’s gross. He is my brother remember.” Jenna reached over and gave her best friend a big hug.
“Thanks Jenna, I really would have hated to miss our senior prom. I’m glad it’s this weekend otherwise I would get my stomach in knots knowing that I’m going to prom with Daniel.”
“I know…” Jenna laughed and gave Carly another hug. “I can’t wait for prom!”
Daniel showed up for Carly right on time and he looked amazing in his tux. He brought Carly a beautiful corsage that matched her dress perfectly and was very delicate and feminine. He pinned it to her dress like a pro and smiled through the pictures that Carly’s parents insisted on taking.
Carly felt like a princess walking into prom on Daniel’s arm. He was the most attractive man in the room. As far as Carly was concerned, he was the only man in the room. None of the others compared, they were mere boys.
The night was a dream come true and Daniel was the perfect gentleman. He danced slower dances with Carly and sat out while Carly, Jenna and their friends danced to the faster songs. He didn’t mind dancing the slow dances with Carly; he had always liked her well enough. He couldn’t see anything ever happening between them other than friendship; after all, he had watched her grow up along side his baby sister.
There was only about an hour left in the evening when it happened. Daniel and Carly were on the dance floor, Carly happier then she’d ever been, when she was suddenly forced out of Daniels arms and spun around, bringing her face to face with Glynna.
Glynna’s face was drained of color except for the bright red spots of anger that colored her cheeks. If it were possible to shoot daggers out of your eyes, Glynna was shooting them at Carly.
“You little tramp! I knew you always had a thing for Daniel and the first thing you do when we are having trouble is make a grab for him. Well let me tell you little girl, he’s mine. Do you hear me?” Glynna was accentuating every word by jabbing Carly in the chest with her finger.
Daniel tried to step in between Glynna and Carly, but Glynna grabbed Carly by both arms. Jenna had come up to stand beside Carly in a show of support but was at a loss as to what to do. Before anyone knew her intent, Glynna reached up, clutched the delicate corsage on Carly’s dress and yanked as hard as she could. “This doesn’t belong to you…” The ugly words were punctuated by the sound of Carly’s gown ripping from the two straight pins holding the corsage in place.
Daniel, finally able to get between the two women, grabbed hold of Glynna and pulled her away from Carly. Carly looked down to see her beautiful gown ripped and hanging down on one side just below her bra. She quickly pulled the shredded material up to cover herself, turned and fled her senior prom in tears.
Daniel tried to catch up to her in the parking lot but he couldn’t extract himself from Glynna fast enough. Jenna had been right behind her though, so she and her date took Carly home. Daniel went by her house the next morning to see if she was alright and to apologize
but she wouldn’t see him.
“She’ll be alright, but she was humiliated last night and to make it worse, you were there to see it.” Carly’s mom explained. She knew about Carly’s feelings for Daniel and understood her daughter’s pain. “Why don’t you try to give her a call in a day or two?”
“Yes ma’am.” Daniel said as Carly’s mom gave him a gentle hug.
He called the next day, and the next, and everyday thereafter but she refused to take his calls. He left for basic training without getting a chance to see or apologize to her.
Chapter One
8 Years Later
“Hello?”
“Carly?”
“Jenna? Jenna, is that you?”
“Carly, can you come home for a visit?”
“I’m getting ready to leave on assignment…” Carly paused, “What’s wrong?”
“Trevor came to see me today.” Jenna waited for Carly to start lecturing, but when Carly didn’t say anything, she continued. “I know things are over between us and I don’t want him back…really, I don’t.”
“What did he want?”
“My engagement ring.” Jenna hiccupped slightly. Carly could tell she’d been crying and wasn’t completely calm yet.
“What?” Carly growled with barely suppressed rage.
“He is getting ready to ask that tramp to marry him and he wants my ring! He said since he paid for most of it, it’s rightfully his.” Jenna couldn’t help but let a little sob out. She and Trevor had been engaged when he met up with his ex-girlfriend and they decided to give it another try. Jenna had been devastated. Trevor was still making payments on her engagement ring and told her he didn’t care what she did with it, but if she sold it, he wanted his money back…Jenna finished paying the ring off and kept it.
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